Biological Clock Project

I am a freelance photojournalist doing research for a project about women and their biological clocks. I am especially interested in interviewing women for whom the pull to have, or not have, children is very important.

My goal is to portray women and their feelings about childbearing in a thoughtful way. The end product will be a combination of still images and audio that can be published in web and print publications as well as on my own website.

Please contact me if you are interested or would like to find out more information. Feel free to re-post this on social media pages. Thanks in advance for your help.

Biological Clock Proposal

Every woman in modern American society has to decide if she wants to bear children. Yes or no, a choice has to be made.

By my mid-thirties, the “biological clock” had infiltrated every conversation with my friends. Their experiences illustrate some of the many ways women confront their fertility. One decided a boyfriend needed to be cut loose because he wasn’t father material. One had to accept that her husband, a previously married father, didn’t want to have more children. Another friend endured self-administered fertility injections, and eventually realized that she would not have children.

A divorced woman is considering having a child on her own. A woman who never wanted children is reconsidering her decision, wanting to be certain she won’t regret not becoming a parent.

I also know women who adamantly don’t want children, and are tired of people asking them about it. A CDC poll found that fifteen percent of American women said that it wouldn’t bother them at all if they didn’t have children.

Recent research suggests it may be possible for women to generate new eggs. There are cutting-edge fertility techniques such as egg freezing and ovary transplants that can help extend a woman’s biological fertility. But for the most part, women’s fertility is finite. It is very difficult for a woman older than 42 to become pregnant with her own eggs. Yet about 20 percent of American women have their first child after age 35. For many women, this is also a time when their careers are especially demanding.

There are controversial social, religious and ethical issues surrounding fertility. Even the term “biological clock” can be loaded. Journalists, even researchers, describe women who don’t have children during their optimal fertile years as “too particular about a mate” or “waiting for their next promotion.” If those same women had a child without financial resources, or without a father, we’d call her selfish and irresponsible.